Tagged: review

REVIEW: Terra Nova

Any time Steven Spielberg comes to television, it’s always with something different. He honored the anthology series of his youth with Amazing Stories and lent his storytelling expertise to get ER launched, making that into a smash hit for NBC. So, when Fox heard of a series about humans and dinosaurs and Spielberg, it seemed like a no brainer. If anyone could get dinosaurs to work convincingly on the small screen, it was the director of Jurassic Park. What the network couldn’t count on was the full extent of Spielberg’s involvement and in time the series was placed under showrunner Brannon Braga’s control. Braga cut his teeth on Star Trek: The Next Generation and has gone on to do other genre fare, but he can’t seem to repeatedly sacrifice characterization in favor of conspiracy and that’s where Terra Nova fell off the rails.

Delayed by schedule issues as the massive CGI prehistoric creatures proved more difficult to execute on a budget, the series debuted last fall and for 14 episodes, we were treated to a series with tremendous potential, most of it wasted.

In 2149, mankind has choked the world so badly that time travel to resettle humanity in the past was the best hope for survival. A colony was established and those fortunate enough to be picked were sent in waves, controlling the impact of man altering the past. We follow the Shannon family from this wretched dystopia to the clean air of the past and see if people can do better when given a better chance. Jim Shannon (Jason O’Mara) is in jail for violating population laws and conceiving a third child but is broken free and joins his wife, Dr. Elisabeth Shannon (Shelley Conn), 17 year old son Josh (Landon Liboiron), 16 year old daughter Maddy (Naomi Scott), and five year old Zoe (Alana Mansour), as they join the Tenth Pilgrimage 85 Million years back in time.

Terra Nova is a thriving colony under the command of Commander Nathaniel Taylor (Stephen Lang) and contains enough raw power to protect the populace from the mammoth critters that wander the jungles just beyond their walls. While the thrust of the stories should have been the struggle to adapt to the environment and its deadly inhabitants, Braga had other ideas. Apparently, The Others, I mean the Sixers split back during the sixth pilgrimage and are working with unknown forces back in the future to seize the pristine world’s resources. Then there’s the mystery of Taylor’s son, a genius who was either part of the conspiracy or its pawn. Add in a blackmarketeer, a teen turned traitor to save her ill mother, young romance, and a few other threads, you get a crazy quilt of plots that could actually be told in any other environment.

The show failed to be different from its genre competitors because it avoided the most unique element going for it: dinosaurs! Man versus nature! How do the people adapt to diseases, microbes, and minerals they never encountered before? How do they ensure each step they take beyond the colony does not in some way create a vastly different tomorrow? Nope, the show skips all of those possibilities for conspiracies and soap operas.

The appealing cast does its best with weak material but by the end of the series, it was clear that there would be little progress in solving these dilemmas and when the plug was mercifully pulled in March, it vanished without much of an imprint in the genre or prime time television.

The complete series is presented on four standard definition discs from 20th Century Home Entertainment. In addition to fourteen hours of drama, the set comes with complete with some vaguely interesting deleted scenes and an extended version of “Occupation/Resistance”, the two-part finale (there’s also an audio commentary from Stephen Lang, Brannon Braga and Rene Echevarria). There are a handful of somewhat interesting “Director’s Diaries – Making the Pilot” with comments from Alex Graves, whose work I have generally admired. Finally, there is a brief look at “Cretaceous Life: The Dinosaurs of Terra Nova”, which should enlighten younger viewers who can’t get enough dinosaurs, and “Mysteries Explored”, delving into the less interest aspects of this failed series. Rounding things out is a gag reel.

A series with potential like this is all the more disappointing when it does not embrace its strengths in favor of a creator’s personal interests. Had Spielberg been more hands on, things might have turned out differently, but as it stands, the show is a mildly engaging misfire.

THE TOTAL PULP EXPERIENCE! WILL MURRAY’S PULP CLASSICS! AND MORE FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!

  • News
  • September 7, 2012

RadioArchives.com Newsletter

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September 7, 2012
 
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Radio Archives is very proud to announce that we have Upgraded all of our Pulp eBooks, and you can upgrade the eBooks you have purchased from Radio Archives for FREE.
 
For the last four months a team of 35 people working around the clock under the leadership of John Olsen have upgraded every one of the Will Murray’s Pulp Classics eBooks.
 
What did we do? We made the eBooks look better by polishing the formatting, making the graphics crisper, and a new Table of Contents when you open the book just like in a pulp magazine. Other improvements include putting the front cover at the beginning of the book.
 
As part of the upgrade every eBook has been proof-read several times so you can enjoy these wonderful pulp stories as they were written.
 
We made it easier to purchase by eliminating the zipfile. Buy a Will Murray’s Pulp Classic from your iPad or other mobile reading device, and be reading within seconds. There is no need for a desktop computer.
 
When you see the Radio Archives brand on a product, you can be assured of its excellence.
 
What is the Total Pulp Experience? Look for the Total Pulp Experience graphic on the cover of all the Popular Publication pulp eBooks where we have added every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine including the letter column. Radio Archives is all about preservation. What better way to preserve these great pulp Magazines than by reprinting everything? We know you wouldn’t want to read an incomplete book.
 

“We’ve decided,” stated Will Murray, “that from now on, most Will Murray Pulp Classics eBook will contain every story, editorial feature and even the letter columns from the original pulp magazine. Previously, if we reprinted the lead novel from the October, 1934 issue of The Spider that was all you got—that juicy story. Going forward, we’re giving you the back-of-the-book short stories too. We do leave out the ads.”
 
Murray explains this in terms of the stories the line has already become known for putting in eBook format. “This means that with the Spider eBooks, you’ll also receive the popular Doc Turner stories by Arthur Leo Zagat and Emile Tepperman’s Masked Marksman backup series. Since both pulpsters also ghosted the lead Spider novels, this makes sense. On Operator #5, we’ll be including Zagat’s Red Finger stories where applicable.”
 

Reasons for this change are numerous, including providing more stories and bringing great, lesser known stories and characters back to a pulp-hungry public after decades. Murray noted, “With the growing interest in pulp eBooks, RadioArchives.com is simply doing what it has always done, going back to its Old Time Radio roots: Innovate. Improving the product is something Radio Archives has always striven to do. The new Total Pulp Experience eBooks means that the customer will get everything worthwhile that can be culled from a given magazine. That’s the appeal. Of course, our anthologies like “The Moon Pool and Other Wonders” are a different deal.”
 
Bringing the Total Pulp Experience to Will Murray’s Pulp Classics eBooks by including the additional stories from the original Pulps will give readers a better sense and experience for what it was like to read a complete magazine right off the rack.
 
For those of you who have purchased eBooks already in the smaller size will not be left behind. Customers who have purchased the previous eBooks will be able to upgrade to the new versions at no additional cost. “The exciting part for me,” said Will Murray, “is that Radio Archives automatically upgrades my Will Murray Pulp Classics eBooks as it converts them. Every customer will receive the same courtesy at no cost. There will be no orphaned customers at Will Murray’s Pulp Classics!”
 
Will further said “This was Tom Brown’s brainstorm. I give him full credit. It’s part of his vision to remain current through constant innovation and the need to stay on top of the ever-evolving technology. The same thinking that inspired Tom to offer our original versions in multiple formats so that customers did not have to repurchase any eBook should he change devices, or the devices themselves change, compelled him decide to implement this idea. No purchaser suggested it. No one complained over the lack of short stories in The Spider. But Tom decided that their absence needed to be rectified. Me, I just stay out of his way.”
 
If you have already purchased Will Murray’s Pulp Classic Ebooks all you need to do is send an email to Service@RadioArchives.com and we will send you instructions on how to upgrade. You will be able to upgrade all of your eBooks in just a few short days from now. Send your email today and be among the first to be upgraded.
 
Fantastic characters and great stories from Pulp’s Golden Age have had new life as a part of Will Murray’s Pulp Classics. Now readers can enjoy even more of the authentic feel of the Classic Pulps thanks to The Total Pulp Experience!
 
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
 
Find these legendary Pulp tales and more in Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, now available in the Kindle store, the Barnes and Noble Nook store, and RadioArchives.com.

 
 

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Receive an exciting original Spider adventure for FREE! Part of the Will Murray Pulp Classics line, The Spider #11, Prince of the Red Looters first saw print in 1934 and features his momentous battle with The Fly and his armies of crazed criminal killers.
 
For those who have been unsure about digging into the wonderful world of pulps, this is a perfect opportunity to give one of these fantastic yarns a real test run. With a full introduction to the Spider written by famed pulp historian and author Will Murray, The Spider #11 was written by one of pulp’s most respected authors, Norvell W. Page. Writing as Grant Stockbridge, Page’s stories included some of the most bizarre and fun takes on heroes and crime fighting in the history of escapist fiction.
 
Even today Page’s scenarios and his edge-of-the-seat writing style are still thrilling both new and old fans everywhere. For those who have never read one of these rollercoaster adventures, you are in for a thrill. If you already know how much fun a classic pulp is, make sure you get a copy of this classic.
 

See what the Total Pulp Experience is for yourself. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
 

Send an eMail to eBooks@RadioArchives.com and start reading your FREE copy of  the Spider #11 within seconds! Experience The Best Pulps the Past has to offer in the most modern way possible!

 

 

The best of timeless Pulp now available as cutting edge eBooks! Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings the greatest heroes, awesome action, and two fisted thrills to your eReader! Presenting Pulp Icons such as the Spider and Operator #5 as well as wonderfully obscure characters like the Octopus and more, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings you the best of yesterday’s Pulp today!

 

A horde of shaggy-browed, blood-hungry madmen with uncouth, primitive weapons, with unlimited vitality and bottomless ferocity, are hewing a path of terror and destruction through the very centers of civilized America — organized and directed by a passion-mad, money-lusting arch-criminal whose devilish cunning has trapped even the Spider, Master of Men, sole champion of outraged humanity, in a net from which, apparently, there is no escape. Who but Richard Wentworth is to pick up the cudgels in defense of mankind — of civilization? Who else can wage successful war against the most malevolent, the most resourceful criminal brain that ever set itself to gut the heart of a nation! Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
 

A shrill scream pierced the quiet night as the mighty Plutonic breasted the glassy waves. As if at a signal, countless passengers, young and old, men and women, were seized by an epidemic of frantic self-destruction. By water, fire, steel and lead they tried eagerly to hurl themselves into oblivion — into the greedy arms of Anubis, grim Egyptian deity of death! Richard Wentworth, who defended humanity in the guise of the dread Spider, recognized the suicide-mania immediately as an extremely cunning attack by the master-brains of the international underworld. Yet when his fellow men needed his protection more than ever before, the Spider lay gravely wounded, ruthlessly harried by Law and Criminal, while his beloved Nita, fortified by her courageous love, went forth to prove she was indeed the Spider’s mate! Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. As a special bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of eBooks.

 

By plague and fire, bribery and chicanery, terrorism and extortion, the insane dictator Ursus Young has established himself as the supreme ruler of America. Who is left with sufficient strength to thwart him? Already he has scattered far and wide the organization of which Operator 5, America’s Secret Service Ace, forms so important a part. Against such tremendous, dictatorial power Jimmy Christopher finds himself battling with a desperation such as he has never felt before… Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. As a special bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of eBooks.

 
Curt Newton, Joan Randall and the Futuremen cruise into a strange world peopled with weird, pallid inhabitants, on the quest of a lost satellite which was mysteriously plucked from the sky! Captain Future… the Ace of Space! Born and raised on the moon, Curt Newton survived the murder of his scientist parents to become the protector of the galaxy known as Captain Future. With his Futuremen, Grag the giant robot, Otho, the shape-shifting android and Simon Wright, the Living Brain, he patrols the solar system in the fastest space ship ever constructed, the Comet, pursuing human monsters and alien threats to Earth and her neighbor planets. The exploits of Captain Future, Wizard of Science, originally appeared in the pages of Captain Future and Startling Stories magazines back in the days before NASA’s manned space program. Captain Future returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.

 

Out of the teeming turbulent East had come Dr. Yen Sin — saffron-skinned wizard of crime — bringing to the Capital of the West all the ancient Devil’s-lore at his command — and a horde of Asian Hell-born to help him spawn it. But Michael Traile — The Man Who Never Slept — had crammed into his own keen brain the means to cope with the sinister doctor. For he knew even the secrets of the Dragon’s Shadow and how to penetrate the yellow murder fog that had descended on the capital to mingle its blood-wisps with the mist from the Potomac. Total Pulp Reprint. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine. One of the Bonus stories is written by Arch Oboler
 

All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
 
Find these legendary Pulp tales and more in Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, now available in the Kindle store and the Barnes and Noble Nook store! and RadioArchives.com!
 
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The end of World War II brought much change in the world and in American Society. As the middle class gained more money, Suburbia grew and the face of the United States changed, entertainment changed right along with it. A prime example of radio reflecting 1950s life can be heard on Father Knows Best, Volume 5 from Radio Archives.
 
In its initial incarnation, Father Knows Best was not much different than similar situation comedies of the period. However, by 1949, it became something quite unique for the period, a solid, well-written portrayal of typical Midwestern family life with a surprising emphasis on well-shaded characters, rather than outlandish situations, to bring out the humorous side of suburban life.
 
Played by Robert Young, the title character of Jim Anderson is a successful insurance salesman living in Springfield with his wife Margaret and their three children: Betty, Bud, and Kathy. Thanks to excellent writing and the outstanding acting talents of the principals, these hilarious slices of everyday life rise above the norm to make Father Knows Best one of the highlight series of late-era network radio entertainment.
 
Heard today, Father Knows Best still hilariously reflects the interpersonal relationships of a typical American family. Regardless if it’s the 1950s or the 21st Century, certain aspects of raising a family never change and remain hilariously consistent. Peek into the past and find a bit of yourself in Father Knows Best, Volume 5 from Radio Archives! Ten hours, twenty shows are available now for only $29.98 on Audio CDs or $14.98 for the Digital Download.
OTR Digital Downloads: Half Price offer extended

 
The interest in Digital Downloads has always been good but for the last 4 weeks it has been the preferred version for 80% of our customers, more than double the rate before. Because of your great response, Digital Downloads of any of our Old Time Radio sets will be priced at 50% off the regular Audio CD price through the end of the year.
 
You can continue to get the same sparkling high quality audio content as our compact disc collections at a reduced price, Delivery immediately upon payment, and the ability to play them on your phone, computer, or portable device! Purchase the audio collections you love and enjoy them in a whole new way!
 

Rapid Fire Radio
A Column by Tommy Hancock
 

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Reviews!
In an era of reality TV, it’s fantastic to take a listen back to a time when Game Shows were original and both entertained and challenged the audience! Information Please, Volume 1 from Radio Archives presents a classic radio Game show that truly reversed a formula already old hat by game show standards! Instead of quizzing audience members or contest winners, regular citizens sent in questions and a panel of experts had to answer the queries from John Q. Public! Funny, interesting, and fresh and new nearly every episode, Information Please, Volume 1 is a hoot to listen to! Find out how much fun Information Please, Volume 1 is for only $29.98 for Audio CDs or $14.98 for the Digital Download version.
 
Tommy Dorsey. Count Basie. Vaughn Monroe. Les Brown. Names that Big Band fans will never forget, but also four of the brilliant pioneers of one of the most fantastic periods of America’s musical history. The Best of the Big Bands, Volume 1 features performances by this legendary conductors and orchestras as well as several others! Like lightning in a bottle, this collection recaptures a time when the music America moved to was played in large nightclubs and dance halls and filled with brass and bravado! Dance your way back to a simpler, grander time with The Best of the Big Bands, Volume 1 only $29.98 for ten Audio CDs.
 

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Television had nothing on Radio as far as Reality shows. Night Watch, Volume 1 from Radio Archives is a collection of real on the scene action as a police recorder rode each week with a California officer on his nightly patrol. Night Watch captures the stark reality of police work in the 1950s and honestly, lets modern listeners realize that not a lot has changed in over 60 years. No punches are pulled with this ‘as it happens’ crime show as the action of the night in each episode is broadcast as it happened, making listeners feel very much as if they are there. Ride along with Night Watch, Volume 1 from Radio Archives for only $29.98 for ten Audio CDs.
 
Although his comedic star rose mostly due to TV, classic funnyman Milton Berle brought his audacious personality and unique humor to radio. Often a guest on many shows, Berle actually landed his own program, The Milton Berle Show, collected as a ten hour set by Radio Archives! Each week, Berle satirically saluted some aspect of American life and culture. Nothing was safe from this brilliant performer’s razor wit. Making light of such august institutions as farmers and railroads, Berle also picked on lighter subjects that were in the public eye, such as Good Health, Public Service, and even the medium he was played on – radio. For guffaws and giggles as well as wonderfully witty commentary on times gone by, The Milton Berle Show is a great bet! Only $29.98 for Audio CDs or $14.98 for the Download version.

 

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NEW Pulp Audiobook: The Octopus “The City Condemned to Hell”
Read by Doug Stone
 

One of the most bizarre pulp magazines ever published was titled The Octopus.
 
Released in 1939 by Popular Publications, it turned the formula of The Spider on its head. Instead of centering on a fearless avenger of crime, it focused on the master criminal himself!
 
His true identity unknown, The Octopus is a denizen of the underworld, bent on bringing America’s greatest city to its knees through a campaign of terror and horror never before seen.
 
Writers Norvell W. Page of Spider fame, backed by Edith and Eljir Jakobsson produced this weird epic under the name of Randolph Craig. Evidently they were attempting to duplicate the success of The Spider—with a weird twist. But there was more to The Octopus than an archfiend who dressed like a cuttlefish. Just as no pulp series can last long without a worthy villain, they understood that without a formidable foe, The Octopus would flop. So they created a hero with three identities. Jeffrey Fairchild is a wealthy medico. By day, he masquerades as kindly old Dr. Skull, treater of the sick in New York’s East Side slums. But at night, he dons a more sinister guise and becomes the sworn foe of all crime—The Skull Killer! Branding his kills on the forehead like the Spider, The Skull Killer takes on The Octopus and his purple-eyed minions in the wildly over-the-top story, The City Condemned to Hell.
 
Backing up this masterpiece of weird menace are three novelettes torn from the pages of the only issue of The Octopus ever published. This audiobook is narrated by the talented brothers of Doug Stone and Glen Stone.

 

Will Murray’s Pulp Classics Audiobooks – An Overview
 
Fantastic tales of action and adventure come alive in an exciting modern way thanks to Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of Audiobooks from Radio Archives! Heroes that stir the imagination and Villains that chill the soul made Pulp Magazines extremely popular in the early 20th Century and fans today can thrill to those same wonderfully written, wild stories as performed by the leading names in Audiobooks today!
 
The Master of Men deals his own brand of justice in the Spider, enhanced audiobooks crafted by producer Roger Rittner. Featuring the excellent voice of Nick Santa Maria, the stories of one of Pulp’s greatest characters erupt with new energy. Combine that with the wonderful talent of Robin Riker as Nita Van Sloan and wrap it all up in sound effects and a full musical score, and the Spider is a great Audiobook for any Pulp Fan!
 
From Hero to Madman, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics covers every base! Doctor Death, possibly one of the strangest, most imaginative creations to come out of the Pulp Era, spreads his malignant evil to a modern audience, thanks to the talented Joey D’Auria. As Jimmy Holm and his Secret Twelve attempt to defeat the strange scientist, Doctor Death wreaks havoc as he wills! With D’Auria’s voice giving the twisted doctor life, Doctor Death is definitely a great Audio Adventure!
 
Classic characters of Yesterday come blazing into Today thanks to Will Murray’s Pulp Classic Audiobooks! The Black Bat swings in guns blazing, courtesy of Michael McConnohie! Voiced by Richard Epcar, Dan Fowler: G-Man, takes criminals head on! The Octopus spreads his tentacles of terror in the first Audiobook to feature the Bonus short stories from the original magazine as performed by brothers Doug and Glen Stone! Operator Five, The Three Planeteers, Secret Agent X, and so many more classic Pulp characters and tales make Will Murray’s Pulp Classic Audiobooks a must have!
 
Even Pulp’s greatest hero makes his Audiobook home at Radio Archives! Doc Savage, as written by Will Murray himself, thunders through tale after tale, thinking and fighting his way through the worst evils imagined. Thanks to the extremely talented Michael McConnohie, these enhanced audiobook adventures, beautifully produced by Roger Rittner, sound very nearly like full cast productions. The Man of Bronze and his terrific team of aides are larger than life in Will Murray’s Doc Savage Audiobooks!
 
 

 

The Master of Darkness investigates baffling mysteries in two classic pulp novels by Walter B. Gibson writing as “Maxwell Grant.” First, The Shadow must unravel the baffling mystery of “The Ribbon Clues” to stop a serial killer and unearth hidden millions! Then, to unmask a diabolical supercrook, The Shadow follows a bizarre trail of murder that leads from San Francisco to Chicago and Manhattan as “Death Rides the Skyway” in an thrill-packed tale of industrial sabotage and deadly greed. This instant collector’s item showcases both classic pulp covers by George Rozen and the original interior illustrations by legendary artist Tom Lovell, with historical commentary by Will Murray. Buy it today for $14.95.
 

The pulp era’s greatest superman returns in two titanic tales by Lester Dent writing as “Kenneth Robeson.” First, the unbelievable sight of “The Man Who Fell Up” sets Doc and Pat Savage on the trail of the Man of Bronze’s missing aides and a super-weapon that could change the course of World War II. Then, the FBI wrongly links Doc Savage and his aides to brutal outbreaks of mindless insanity! Can the Man of Bronze elude the G-Men long enough to solve the incredible mystery of “The Three Wild Men”? This double-novel collector’s edition features both original color pulp covers by Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray, writer of ten Doc Savage novels. Buy it today for $14.95.
 

One of the top crime-fighters from the golden age of pulp fiction, The Spider returns in two thrill-packed adventures written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Laboratory Of The Damned” (1936), Poisoned! Struck down by a deadly assault from a mad murderer, the Spider finds his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police, doomed to a stupor of living death. Nor is he the only victim… also stricken with the dread malady is Richard Wentworth’s fiancee, Nita van Sloan! The Spider battles both the Law and the Underworld to survive! Then, in “Hell’s Sales Manager” (1940), The Brand wields a weird new weapon that sucks everything in its path into a vortex of destruction! How can even the Master of Men fight an enemy that seems to simply vanish? While this reign of terror goes unchecked, the Spider finds his every effort hampered by a human bloodhound assigned to track down and eliminate him. These two exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading and feature both of the original full color covers as well as interior illustrations that accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!
 

Altus Press is proud to announce the release of the third volume in its acclaimed Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series, written by Will Murray and Lester Dent, writing as Kenneth Robeson.
 
Set in the Fall of 1936, The Infernal Buddha tells the epic story of Doc Savage’s desperate quest to control the Buddha of Ice, a relic of unknown origin—and what may become the most dangerous object on Earth!
 
When a mummy arrives at Doc Savage’s New York headquarters wearing the clothes of his missing assistant, engineer Renny Renwick, Doc, Monk, and Ham rush to Singapore where they get on the trail of a swashbuckling pirate who calls himself the Scourge of the South China Sea, in whose hands a piece of the infernal Buddha has fallen. The trail leads to Pirate Island, the fate of Renny, and a mysterious box containing a terrible, unstoppable power.
 
But that is only the beginning of the quest into which the Man of Bronze plunges—one that will take him to the upper reaches of the Yellow Sea and a series a wild ocean battles against the vicious factions fighting for control on the infernal Buddha.
 
Before it is all over, every human life on Earth will tremble on the brink of eternity, and Doc Savage will face his greatest test.
 
“This may be my wildest Doc novel to date,” says author Will Murray. “The Infernal Buddha is a fantasy epic full of corsairs, criminals and other culprits. The menace is planetary. The threat, extinction. Doc Savage has a reputation for saving the world. This time he does it on the greatest scale possible. I began this book back in 1992, working from an opening situation Lester Dent started in 1935. Together, we have produced a true Doc Savage epic. And it only took about 75 years….”
 
The Infernal Buddha features a startling cover painted by Joe DeVito, depicting Doc Savage as the Buccaneer of Bronze! This cover was painted from a still taken in 1964 of legendary model Steve Holland, and is a variant pose shot for famed illustrator James Bama’s classic cover to The Man of Bronze. There has never been a Doc cover like it! Buy it today for only $24.95 from Radio Archives.
 
 

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Review of “The Thousand-Headed Man” from Doc Savage, Volume 20
By Dr. Art Sippo

 
As Doc Savage arrives at London’s Croydon airport, a shooting occurs. A thin white man is wounded and cries out for someone named Sen Gat. As Doc comes to his aid, the wounded man throws him a small package and asks him to keep it safe. Inside the package is a strange black waxy stick. From that point on, Doc and his men are under assault by the oriental mastermind Sen Gat and his cronies who are trying to steal that black stick. There are actually several of them and Sen Gat wants them all. The battle rages in London and the body count rises. Doc and his men meet the lovely and resourceful Lucile Copeland whose father Calvin Copeland was lost on an expedition to Indochina seeking the legendary monster known as “The Thousand-Headed Man.” Lucile believes that Sen Gat knows where her father is and that he too is seeking the “Thousand-Headed Man.” Somehow the black sticks are part of the key to this mystery.
 
Doc and his men accompany Miss Copeland on an airplane expedition to the depths of Indochina following a chain of horribly carved pagodas all leading to the mysterious lair of the Thousand Headed Man. Along the way, they encounter the scions of an ancient lost cult millennia old and its strange rustling weapon that can incapacitate or kill. At the same time Sen Gat and his band of criminals are in pursuit using the deadly weapons of modern times. Caught between the forces of Aulden and contemporary evil, can Doc Savage and his men survive let alone prevail?
 
“The Thousand-Headed Man” was originally published in July 1934. It has remained one of the perennial favorites in the Doc Savage canon. The story includes exotic locales, a wily oriental villain, lost civilizations, mysterious means of death, and a central mystery the solution of which is the denouement of the story. All the things that make up the true pulp adventure novel we all know and love are here along with the skillful writing of Lester Dent at his best.
 
It is no wonder that “The Thousand-Headed Man” had been chosen in 1966 to be the first story adapted in a series of Doc Savage movies that would have starred Chuck Connors. Mr. Connors actually went on the late night Johnny Carson show to announce the planned series. There was even a comic book from Gold-Key based on this story as a tie in to the movie. Sadly the film never came to pass. But the story was adapted into a radio play that was broadcast on NPR in the late 1980s the recording of which is currently available from Radio Archives.
 
Thrill now to ‘The Thousand Headed Man”, including the color cover and the internal artwork, as well as another full length Doc tale. Get Doc Savage Volume 20 for only $12.95 from Radio Archives!
 

Comments From Our Customers!
 
Paul Gray writes:
Many thanks for the prompt attention in refunding the duplicate payment I made for the download for Mutual Radio Theater vol. 2 recently. Since then I have downloaded three more sets from you. All this is great stuff and the quality is superb as per usual. In future I will be concentrating on downloads instead of CDs – the saving in cost is a tremendous help — and there is no need to find a lot of extra shelf space.
 
Robert Graff writes:
I recently purchased your download editions of several shows including your set of the Mercury Theater on the Air. I was highly impressed by the quality of these shows, especially Mercury Theater as I’ve only ever heard fair to poor sounding copies of those shows. Also, one request I would love to make assuming that it’s possible, would be a collection of remastered episodes of Flash Gordon. The copies that have been available and floating around for years have been, in my opinion, barely listenable do the poor sound quality and this is a series that I think would greatly benefit from your work.
 

Barney McCasland writes:
I’ve listened to The Octopus “The City Condemned to Hell”, and I have to admit it was more entertaining than I remembered, due, I suspect, in no small part to Doug Stone’s reading. I enjoyed Doug and Glen Stone’s readings of the three bonus short stories.

 

If you’d like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to Service@RadioArchives.com. We’d love to hear from you!

 
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New Who Review : Asylum of the Daleks

  • News
  • September 3, 2012

A new season, a return of an old enemy, a dramatic change to a relationship, and a very surprising casting choice made the premiere episode of Doctor Who quite the rollicking ride.  Keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times, mind the spoilers, hang tight to your jewelry (especially bracelets), mind the spoilers and here we go…

ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS
By Steven Moffat
Directed by Nick Hurran

The Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams are all captured by Dalek sleeper agents and taken to their main fleet, home of their Parliament.  Rather than Exterminate him, they beg for his help.  Their Asylum, a combination hospital and prison for Daleks so damaged or insane they can no longer be controlled, is in danger of being breached after a lost spaceship crashes on it.  The Doctor. Amy and Rory are sent down to the surface to shut down the planetary force field defense, so the Daleks can destroy it.  At the same time, The Doctor has to save the mysterious Oswin Oswald, who’s staged a single-handed defense against the insane Daleks for nearly a year, as well as fix the relationship of his Companions Amy and Rory.  If he achieves three more impossible things, he can have breakfast.

Steven Moffat’s admitted that the Daleks are his favorite Who foe, and had wanted to “give them a rest” for bit, till the right story came along. Well, mission accomplished.  He does what needs to be done anytime to you bring back an enemy and expand on them a bit, add to their mythos. Here we see a new ruling structure, a horrifying insight to their concept of beauty, and a look at how they treat their failures.  In short, a solid story, with some great dramatic moments.  Another chapter in the greatest romance in time and space, and an introduction to…well, maybe not the character, but certainly the actress who’ll be taking the reins from Karen and Arthur as the next Companion.

THE MONSTER FILES

The Daleks have been so much a part of the history of Doctor Who it’s almost impossible to talk of one without the other.  Introduced in the second adventure, their innovative design seized the imagination of the children of Britain, and has never let go.  Any hopes the series had of being a semi-educational show were blasted off the table when it became clear that the kids wanted scary monsters and super freaks.

Created by Terry Nation, who would go on to create the series Blake’s 7 and The Survivors, he attempted to take his creation to America and pitch  a series here.  The character Sara Kingdom (played by Jean Marsh and seen in The Dalek Master Plan) was to be their primary enemy in the pitched series, which never came to pass.

While the Dalek Puppets are a new addition to their weaponry, they’re scarcely the first attempt to use bipedal, opposable-thumbed minions.  In addition to the endless poor suckers who think they’ll be treated well (or even differently) by the Daleks, they’ve created Robomen slaves of their prisoners, both in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and its out of continuity film adaptation starring Peter Cushing.  Ogrons became a slave race of choice for a while, appearing in Day of the Daleks. Most recently, we saw Professor Bracewell, an android created to aid in The Victory of the Daleks.  Indeed, since we’ve now seen how they can completely replace a human’s body with Dalek components, one could wonder if Edwin Bracewell didn’t have implanted memories, but REAL memories, those from before his conversion.

HUGE SPOILED ALERT!

Jenna-Louise Coleman (Oswin Oswald)  Jenna’s career is only a few years old, similar to that of Karen Gillan, but what she’s got is cherce. Starting off with a brief run on British soap opera Emmerdale (you thought I was going to say EastEnders, didn’t you?), she also had recurring roles on Walterloo Road and  starred with John Goodman on Dancing on the Edge. Most recently she’s starred in the Titanic mini-series, and had a small role in Captain America. She will be heard from again in the very near future.

Anamaria Marinca (Darla / Dalek puppet) is another case of getting the best people for even the smallest roles.  Romanian by birth, she’s won dozens of acting awards for her work, including a BAFTA for the series Sex Traffic.

BACKGROUND BITS AND BOBS – Trivia and production details

CREDITS WHERE CREDITS ARE DUE – Another minor tweak to the opening of the series.  The effect of the TARDIS flying through the Time Vortex is more blurred, and at the same time more colorful.  We see the return of the red and blue, indicating the capsule is traveling forward or backward in time. Also, the logo of the series has changed, and will continue to change in each episode.  Here it’s covered in “Dalek Bumps”, next week it’s reported it’ll have scales like a dinosaur.  The font for the cast and the episode title match now, no longer using the same font as the logo.

SET PIECES – The design of the Dalek ships have a number of subtle points.  The bars in the viewport window match the grille design of a new series Dalek, so it looks like they’re looking out the grille of a giant Dalek.  Also note the trapezoidal doors, designed to accommodate their bodies, and of course, the utter lack of stairs. Note also that all the control panels are all shaped to fit the Dalek “plunger” hand. We’ve seen that it can change shape slightly – likely the globe serves as a haptic interface, a hemispheric iPad screen.

Once again, the classic “heart beat” sound effect appears – used since the Tom Baker years (and found on the “Doctor Who Sound Effects” album), the thumping hum of a Dalek base has been used in every new series Dalek episode.  It appears as Rory accidentally awakens the sleeping inmates of the asylum.

AND NO ONE HEARD AT ALL, NOT EVEN THE CHAIR – The Beeb will re-use props and background pieces when they can.  This week, the chair from Oswin’s little control room is the same one from Jenny’s ship in The Doctor’s Daughter. The Clever Theories have already started rolling.

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC SAHARA – The sequences on the snowy mountains of the Asylum were originally set to be filed in a set.  But when preparing for a trip to Spain to film sequences for A Town Called Mercy, series producer Marcus Wilson pointed out that the Sierra Nevada mountain range was only a hop skip and jump away, and wouldn’t it make more sense (and possibly save money) to pop up there and film the exterior scenes?  Caroline Skinner agreed, and off they went.

EVERY DALEK EVER – marked as the biggest conglomeration of pepperpots in the history of the series, the episode did not disappoint.  Well…sort of.  For all the hype and hoohah they gave the return of the Special Weapons Dalek (first seen in Remembrance of the Daleks and several novels and other off-TV adventures), it was a glorified cameo – it didn’t fire, and barely moved.  You got a better look at it in the promotional photos.  There were a smattering of old model Daleks – the pirouetting model appeared to be a white Imperial Dalek from Remembrance, and there were a few other “classic” series models.  Can you find them all?

More surprising is which Daleks we saw the most of – the vast majority of models we saw were the “bronze” variety we’ve seen since the start of the new series.  Considering all the pomp and circumstance the New Paradigm Daleks were introduced in Victory of the Daleks, they were barely there at all.  Since they were seen at the center of the parliament, it is most likely that they serve as rulers/generals of the Dalek race, taking the positions once held by Black and Gold Daleks.  The bronze models would continue to serve as the soldiers.

ONE IF BY LAND, TWO IF BY RORY – Minor production error in Rory’s first scene among all the inactive Daleks – the model he pushes about has a headlamp missing in the above and reverse shots; it has both in the shots from behind Rory.

“Skaro – original planet of the Daleks” Introduced in their original adventure, we’ve seen Skaro itself a few times in the series.  The Doctor and his friends traveled back to The Genesis of the Daleks with the help of the Time Lords, with the task of averting their creation.  In the far future, the Emperor Dalek ruled over their empire in The Evil of the Daleks, but at another point, it was a virtually dead planet being excavated by the Movellans in Destiny of the Daleks. It was presumed destroyed by supernova in Remembrance of the Daleks, but Daleks are not unlike cockroaches – they seem to be able to survive everything.

“Out of ten?  Eleven” More than just the obvious Spinal Tap “Goes to eleven” gag, this is another sly reference that this is The Doctor’s eleventh incarnation, and that Matt is the eleventh (in continuity) actor to play him.

“The Predator of the Daleks will be deployed” – Along with the earlier revealed “Oncoming Storm”, The Daleks have graced The Doctor with a title of their own.  As has been pointed out before, names are a recurring theme in the series.  Knowing an enemy’s name reduces their power, and increases your ability to hurt them.

“Are you actually, properly real?” Note a very subtle hint to Oswin’s malleable reality – when The Doctor calls her “Carmen”, a rose appears behind her ear.  It was not there before, and is gone in the next scene.

“RoRRRYYYYYYYYYyyyyyy!” Throughout the episode, there are tells that Amy still very much cares for Rory.  When she awakes, she looks for him, and not The Doctor.  And that piercing scream is the same one she used to call to him in Amy’s Choice.

“Nanogenes” Steven Moffat coined that term in The Empty Child for the micro-robots designed to heal injuries, turn people into gasmask-faced monsters, and in this case, convert people to Dalek Puppets.  Amy is likely (we hope) right that as a Time Lord The Doctor was immune to their effect, and will similarly be able to reprogram a few to repair any temporary changes made to Amy.

“They’re the ones who survived me” The planets mentioned are all from past battles between the Doctor and his lifelong foe:
Spiridon – Planet of the Daleks
Kembal – The Dalek Master Plan
Aridius – The Chase
Vulcan – Power of the Daleks
Exxilon – Death to the Daleks
Of course, if I were to be very picayune, I’d mention that if that were the case, these should all be older design Daleks, when it looks more like they’re all the modern Bronze variety. But do I look like that kind of person?

“They did a full conversion” – Daleks have converted humans to Dalek beings in the past, although in Victory, it was said that they’d done it so many times, the Progenitor system didn’t even recognize the surviving members as true Daleks.  Presumably the automated systems of the Asylum was more interested in enhancing the security system than in the scrupulous worry about purity.

Humans and Daleks don’t usually mix.  Dalek Sec attempted it in Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks with poor results, and the infection of the Human Factor caused a civil war in Evil of the Daleks, which was at the time supposed to be the final Dalek adventure.

BIG BAD WOLF REPORT While Moffat and the Who production office have maintained that there’s no over-arcing plotline this series, there are clearly themes already appearing.  Matt Smith has described this five-episode run as “The Fall of the Ponds”, as it will culminate in their departure at the end of episode five, The Angels Take Manhattan.  The prequel series Pond Life provided a look into the Ponds’s home life when The Doctor wasn’t around, ending with a hint of the breakup we saw here.  The fourth episode, The Power of Three, is supposed to further that story a bit more.

“Life, just life – that thing that goes on when you’re not there” Most tragic is the revelation that because of the traumas from Demon’s Run, Amy can no longer bear children.  That’s clearly a massive blow to Rory, so much so that Amy chooses to push him away, in the hopes he’ll find someone who can give him what he’s always wanted.  There’s a clever theory boiling in my head that might well tie more than a couple threads up, but I’ll hold my tongue for the moment.

“Remember me” Clearly one theme that popped up in this episode is that of memory and remembering.  From The Doctor’s advice that Amy “Make [the Daleks] remember you” to Oswin’s request of the same to The Doctor, after her ensuring that the Daleks wouldn’t remember him, it comes up more than a few times in the episode.

“DOK-TOR-WHO?” Tying back to the end of last series, The Doctor chooses to allow the reports of his death to remain greatly exaggerated, so he may work more into the background, and safe from those who wish to harm him.  It’s backed up in the opening of the episode where Darla believe The Doctor to be dead.  And now that the Daleks have now (at least temporarily) forgotten who he is, he’s able to fade back a bit more.

But the real “Question” is one that’s been bouncing through the entire new series – The Doctor’s Name, his real origins, and why he keeps them so secret.  It’s been said that on the Fields of Trenzalore, that question will be asked, and he’ll be compelled to answer.  When that will happen, and what will happen as a result, we do not know, but Moffat does not lay plot threads higgledy-piggledy.

I DON’T THINK WE’VE BEEN PROPERLY INTRODUCED – Jenna-Louise Coleman’s appearance Oswin Oswald is clearly the biggest surprise this episode had.  Already announced as The Doctor’s new Companion (and scheduled to come on board in that capacity in the Christmas episode) she appears here in what is presumed either a different role, or perhaps even from another point of her life.  Her Companion role’s name had been rumored to be Clara, but as we know, nothing is guaranteed in the world of Who.

Moffat and the rest of the cast and crew have shared massive accolades to both the press and the thousands of fans and bloggers who all kept this reveal utterly secret through four sneak previews of this episode over the past month.

You’re welcome.

NEXT TIME ON DOCTOR WHO – The Doctor is sick of…well, no, he seems quite excited by the idea of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Lestrade finds his division, Ron Weasley’s dad is also Rory’s dad (so…related?) and also Queen Nefertiti. Seven days away…you busy?

 

REVIEW: Glee the Complete Third Season

glee-season-3-b_glee_bd_ssn3_spine_boxshot_jp01_rgb-300x400-2757563The greatest pitfall television series featuring high school cast members has is that the cast is already older when the series begins and they age out rapidly. Smallville stopped setting stories in the high school because the cast looked ridiculous on the sets. Confronting the inevitable graduation challenges the producers to find tortured ways to keep the cast intact after the caps and gowns are put away. Even Buffy the Vampire Slayer suffered from this challenge so it is refreshing to see Glee take graduation head on in the third season of the Fox series.

Glee the Complete Third Season came out on DVD last week and seeing it without the weeks-long breaks between cycles, allows you to see how they handled the coming graduation and choices the teens are being asked to make. While the series has never really focused on the kids’ academics, there was almost zero interest in ACTs or college visits, so it was always in the ether but never the focal point of the stories. Instead, it was all about getting to Nationals in New York and succeeding. The season opened with the need for fresh members thanks to a rival Glee Club set up by Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel) while Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) ran for Congress on an anti-arts platform.

Clearly, the producers had no real idea of where to take the characters as motivations and the status quo changed, twisting them beyond recognizabilty. The most ill-served may have been Quinn (Dianna Agron) who started off trying to steal back her baby, given to Shelby for adoption,  then embracing the final year of high school until her driving accident (don’t text and drive) and recovery. Somewhere along the line, this sympathetic character, who in season two recognized she was a small town girl stuck in Ohio, gained 50 IQ points and got into Yale and was Ivy League bound. Huh? The best teen villain has become a hero. All the edges to characters are gone, from Puck (Mark Salling) to the divas Mercedes (Amber Riley), robbing the students of interesting character variety. Santana (Naya Rivera) was also softened although her coming out as a lesbian and rising as a performer were among the season’s highlights.

Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), the romantic couple at the center of the storm, decided to get married and their arc dealt with that reality and the choices each need make for themselves and each other. This rang far more true than the disastrous marriage between Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) and Cooter Menkins (Eric Bruskotter), which formed a mini-arc in the final third of the season.

While each of the 22 episodes is entertaining and often heartfelt, as a season-long arc for the faculty and students it’s a mess and by now Ryan Murphy should have a very clear idea of who they are and where these characters are going. Instead, he seems to have lost any sense of edge in Sylvester, giving her instead a rival in Roz Washington (NeNe Leakes). Even the show’s most intriguing character, Burt Hummel (Mike O’Malley), somehow found himself running for Congress and winning, stealing him from Kurt (Chris Colfer), just as his son’s dreams of going to NYADA are crushed.

Musically, the show remains strong, aided by the welcome addition of Darren Criss’ Blaine to the New Directions. Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) is also back after a brief contract issue. Some of the winners of the reality series, The Glee Project, wind up added to the cast but are little more than hangers-on with little learned about them and rarely given a showcase. The quest for a championship takes a backseat to the fall musical, West Side Story, which featured some terrific reimaginings of the classic numbers.

In the finale, eight of the cast graduate and turnover in the New Directions will fuel the fourth season as it begins in a few weeks. Most of the graduates will continue to appear so the ensemble swells which is not always a good idea.

The four disc set looks amazing and of course sounds terrific but we’ve come to expect that from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. A neat feature to the set is that the menus will help you keep track as you work your way through the season, remembering where you are.

As usual, the extras are heavy on the music, the show’s hallmark. We get more from the Glee Music Jukebox, although you get clips and not the full songs that were edited to air. Some of the non-musical bits include “Glee Under the Stars” (7:45), a kickoff event at Santa Monica High School. “Glee Give a Note” (7:46) shows stars Jayma Mays and Jones present Culver City Middle School a check for $10,000 for arts education.

You can enjoy some extended and deleted scenes throughout the discs. The highlight here is a Sue Sylvester flashback that should have found its way on air. “Glee Swap: Behind the Scenes of ‘Props'” (5:41) is a nice look at the fun body-swapping episode. “Meet the Newbies” (13:20) spends more time with the new cast members than the series seemed to. “Saying Goodbye” (15:19) is a good look at the emotional toll the finale took on one and all. Lynch’s acerbic Sylvester is found on “Ask Sue: World Domination Blog” (6:07) and “Return of Sue’s Quips” (2:58).

One can hope that the freshened cast will ignite some greater dramatic consistency to match its musical excellence. For now, we have this set which is maddeningly enjoyable while being frustratingly inconsistent.

REVIEW: “Friends With Boys” by Faith Erin Hicks

Friends with Boys, the new graphic novel by Faith Erin Hicks (whose The War at Ellsmere I reviewed in a huge round-up month),has an oddly ill-fitting title; it’s the story of a teenager, Maggie, who is starting in a public highschool after her mother (who home-schooled her and her three older brothers — all of whom oddly seem to still be in the same school though there seems to be a few years in between her and her twin brothers and then the oldest one) ran away mysteriously. Maggie has trouble making friends with anyone, since she’s been so wrapped up in her family, but she’s a tomboy, and has been closer to boys (her brothers) her entire life. So being “Friends With Boys” isn’t really the big thing here — it’s that she’s in the company of people who aren’t family, or without her mother, or something along those lines. The title also makes her homeschooling sound more controlling or sinister, as if it were based on some controlling-young-women religion, and it isn’t like that at all.

But there’s nothing to stop Maggie from becoming friends with boys, or more than that — her brothers are friendly and supportive (if awfully rough-and-tumble) rather than over-protective, and even her father (the chief of police of their small town) is a support rather than an authority figure. Friends With Boys is somewhat the story of potential friendships for Maggie, but those friendships are with a brother and sister (Lucy and Alistair) that she meets at school, her brothers (as they work out their own conflicts), and a ghost that she’s been seeing in the local graveyard for the past seven years.

The ghost and the Alistair/Lucy friendship together drive much of the plot — Alistair, a mohawked punk, has a feud with the blond captain of the volleyball team (though, luckily, it’s not otherwise as cliched as that may sound), and Maggie is sure she knows what she has to do to put that ghost at rest. But, if Hicks has a message in Friends With Boys, it’s that things are more complicated than they look. There are several plot or thematic strands that are raised but never resolved — primarily among them the disappearance of Maggie’s mother just before the book starts — and the answers we do learn aren’t the ones we expected.

All of that makes Friends With Boys an excellent graphic novel for teens, its expected audience — it’s a story about walking out into a wider world, not entirely understanding it, making plans based on what you see — and then still not entirely understanding that world. So much fiction for teens tries to wrap everything up in one ball or another — that everything is horrible because adults, or that they can be perfect special snowflakes if they want, or some other pat explanation — that Hicks’ messy complications (and that’s without any kind of love-plot, too; how complicated will Maggie’s life get what that gets into the mix?) are a breath of cool air, like the dizzying view from a mountaintop. As this book ends, Maggie still hasn’t learned how to be friends with boys, but maybe she has learned how to be friends with her brothers, which is one step forward.

REVIEW: “Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain” by A. Lee Martinez

emperormollusk-5872363Martinez has been writing humorous SF novels for close to a decade now, all of which have looked like fun to me, but Emperor Mollusk versus the Sinister Brain is the first one I managed to actually read. It’s the SFnal story of a world-conquering squid from Neptune (a super-genius squid from Neptune) in a very comic-booky universe, where every planet in the solar system has an indigenous race with their own high technology.

Emperor Mollusk narrates his own story, starting well after he’s conquered Earth (for its own benefit; he’s a very benevolent tyrant) and mostly focusing on his battle with a new would-be conqueror, who may be even smarter than he is. It’s quick and zippy and colorful and amusing, filled with quips and explosions and last-minute escapes and triple reverses and more high-tech gadgets than all of the Bond movies put together.

And if I even wanted to do a serious critical take on it — and who would want to do such a thing to a book like this? — I read it too long ago to remember any of the pertinent details. Emperor Mollusk is fun, and smart about its generic materials, and thoroughly amusing. I’d be very happy to read more by Martinez if this is the way he usually works.

MUTUAL, THE SPIDER, DIGITAL DOWNLOADS, AND MORE FROM RADIO ARCHIVES!

  • News
  • August 10, 2012

RadioArchives.com Newsletter

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August 10, 2012
 
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What would it take to recapture the glory of the golden age of radio and still incorporate the stars and even stories of a more modern time? This query was answered extremely well in 1980 by one program, 20 of its episodes collected in Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 2 from Radio Archives!
 
At a time when radio drama was attempting a comeback, The Sears Radio Theater made a move and name change to Mutual, becoming the Mutual Radio Theater. Mutual answered the age old question of blending the classic with the modern by doing just that. Producing a show that put legends of the Radio Drama era to work side by side with modern up and coming stars of television and film!
 
The Mutual Radio Theater featured stories written by radio greats such as Arch Oboler, Norman Corwin, and Elliot Lewis. These scribes brought their formidable talents to bear on this kaleidoscopic show, providing solid scripts for every genre the show represented five nights a week. Oboler’s atmospheric twists, Corwin’s realistic, often revealing takes on American life, and Lewis’ understanding of what made listeners laugh, cry, and cringe blended well with the work of modern storytellers to make Mutual Radio Theater an instant classic.
 
Presenting the entire run of Mutual Radio Theater in five collections, Radio Archives proudly presents 20 Stereo episodes in Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 2! Each show is presented in the highest quality and features writing and performances from the best of classic and more modern entertainment!
 
Priced at only $59.98, Save $20.00 for the next two weeks with our Introductory Price of $39.98! Volume 1 was one of our best selling radio sets in 2012. Make sure you get Volume 2 today. See below for a very special price on the download version.
 
 
Every week the Archives receives comments like this. “If Radio Archives begins offering download versions of its products, please let me know.” Radio Archives has been offering all of our audio sets in two formats for the last year. The very popular Audio CDs and MP3 Digital Downloads.
 
For well over a decade, Radio Archives has been known for our Sparkling audio quality of our Old Time Radio collections and it’s no wonder. We insist upon finding the absolute best quality masters, then carefully restoring them so that they retain all of the audio luster of the original recordings with none of the crackle, pops, hiss, or muffling so often heard in radio shows from other sources. Now, with Digital Downloads, Radio Archives gives you the same quality of work and restoration in each set. That’s why every classic radio collection you download from Radio Archives comes to you as a zip file containing each individual show, encoded as a mono 128 kpbs MP3 file with a sampling rate of 44,100. As audiophiles know 128 kbps Mono is the same quality as 256 kbps Stereo.
 
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All new CD sets released by Radio Archives are available as downloads and most of our 200 Radio sets are available for download. If you find the odd set that isn’t available, send us an email and we will put that set next on the list to produce.
 
Digital Downloads make it easy for you to take the drama, comedy, music, mystery, and history of classic radio with you wherever you go. Solve mysteries along with Phillip Marlowe, Johnny Dollar, Boston Blackie and more as you make your morning walk. Laugh and chortle at the antics of Fibber McGee and Molly, Jimmy Durante, Amos and Andy and others while doing chores around the house. Tap your foot to the tunes of Jolson, Ellington, and the best of the big bands while driving, at work, anytime you want from the mobile device of your choice. Now all of these great sets can also be purchased as Digital Downloads – and at a price considerably lower than the comparable CD set! Just visit RadioArchives.com today, place your order, download your sets, and in just minutes you’ll be enjoying some great audio entertainment.
 

Buying Digital Downloads is just as easy as being able to take your favorite shows with you and we’ll show you how!
 
Let’s say you want to purchase the NEW Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 2 that was released today. First go to the Radio Archives Home page and click on the OLD TIME RADIO button on the left or use the handy Search tool at the top of the main menu. Or click on the product above in the newsletter.
 
Click on the Drama category and click on Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 2 image. You’ll be taken to the Liner Notes for the CD version of that collection.
 
 
Next to the Front Cover, you’ll see the pricing for the Audio CD version and it happens to be on sale today. Prefer the Digital Download version? Click the ‘Go to Download Version’ button and you’ll see the download version. Add the download version to your shopping cart, proceed with checkout, and you’ll instantly be able to download a ZIP file containing MP3s of all of the shows in the set. In just a few seconds, you’ll be listening to the ‘Mutual Radio Theater!’ This is one of the simpliest downloads available anywhere.
 
 
On the road, around the house, in the yard, wherever you are, Digital Downloads from Radio Archives means you can take the best of old time radio and pulp audiobooks with you every where.
 
We are proud of our Downloads and would love you to try one. For the Next Two Weeks, you can get Digital Downloads of any of our Old Time Radio sets for 50% off the regular Audio CD version price!
 
Take a look at the Old Time Radio section of the website and you’ll see just how much variety there is. Such long-time customer favorites as the classic police drama “Calling All Cars”, the western adventure series “The Cisco Kid”, the high-flying adventures of America’s favorite free-lance insurance investigator “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar”, the fantastic musical numbers of shows like “ The Railroad Hour” and “Date with The Duke” and so many more can now be yours at the specially discounted price of 50% off the Audio CD version price for the next two weeks! TIP: Since the Audio CD version of the Mutual Radio Theater, Volume 2 is on sale, you also get the download version at 50% off the sale price, but only for the next two weeks.
 
Digital Downloads fromRadioArchives.com literally give you the best of everything- The same sparkling high quality audio content as our compact disc collections at a reduced price, Delivery immediately upon payment, and the ability to play them on your phone, computer, or portable device! Purchase the audio collections you love and enjoy them in a whole new way!
 
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Audiobook Reviews – The Spider “The Flame Master”
by Derrick Ferguson
 

The one thing you have do before listening to a Spider audiobook, any Spider audiobook is realize that what you’re going to hear is gloriously, outrageously, outstandingly nuts. There’s no other way to describe a Spider adventure. But it’s a good nuts. One that entertains like few other pulp heroes can. A Spider adventure is like a shot of turbocharged adrenaline injected directly into your brain. It’s always apocalyptic on an Old Testament level with a body count high enough that I frankly give up trying to estimate how many people, guilty and innocents alike get killed in a Spider adventure.
 
The Flame Master is no different in this respect as it features a bizarre opponent for The Spider to battle: Aronk Dong, who claims to be a prince from the planet Mars. If that wasn’t enough, Aronk Dong appears to be half-man, half-lion. The Spider thinks it’s some sort of elaborate make-up until he’s on the receiving end of Aronk Dong’s claws. From then on, Richard Wentworth isn’t so sure this character isn’t for real. And if that wasn’t enough, Aronk Dong can apparently cause lightning to strike whenever and whoever he wishes at will.
 
Like the other Spider audiobooks I’ve been entertained by, this one comes complete with music and sound effects that greatly enhance the drama and really helps to get into the headlong, non-stop pace of the story. I really enjoy Nick Santa Maria’s voice work as it sounds as if he’s right at my elbow, telling me this story as urgently as he can before he’s interrupted. Robin Riker voices Nina Van Sloan and I love it. I always prefer when women do the voices of women character in audiobooks as it really doesn’t work for me when a man does a women’s voice because that’s usually what it sounds like: a man trying to sound like a women. Here in The Flame Master, Robin Riker’s wonderful work helps greatly, along with the music and sound effects to the feeling that I’m listening to a drama.
 

I’ve gotten so spoiled by Radio Archives series of Spider audiobooks that I’m actually reluctant to read the books as I’ve gotten hooked on hearing the voices of the characters and listening to the excellent production values of these excellent audiobooks. The Flame Master is yet another jewel in the crown of Spider audiobooks and well worth your time. Enjoy.
 
By Visionsmyth on Amazon
 
Imagine if somebody had produced a Doc Savage radio serial back in the ‘30’s or ‘40’s. Then imagine if the surviving copies were clean, clear, and had stereo capability. These are just plain FUN, produced in the manner of old radio serials but with all the modern amenities available to current technology – at least, 1980s technology, which was pretty darn good.
 
This series captures the style of serials produced when the Doc Savage adventures were written, and the actor selection was terrific. Renny sounds like Renny, Monk sounds the way Dent described him, Pat sounds like Pat. Some of the “evil vilian” accents are fairly cheesy (sorry), but then, that would likely be true if they were produced in the 30s, so at least it’s authentic cheesiness.
 
One extra CD includes production commentary, which I really enjoyed. Another has examples of other radio productions, also great fun. I only wish the movie developers had approached their project with the same intent and respect as these radio producers. Are you listening, Hollywood?
 

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The best of timeless Pulp now available as cutting edge Ebooks! Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings the greatest heroes, awesome action, and two fisted thrills to your E-Reader! Presenting Pulp Icons such as the Spider and Operator 5 as well as wonderfully obscure characters like Doctor Death and more, Will Murray’s Pulp Classics brings you the best of yesterday’s Pulp today!
 
Five new golden age Pulp tales exquisitely reformatted into visually stunning E-books!

 

Fear stalked the corridors and offices on Capitol Hill, for it was from the ranks of the mighty — the rulers and lawmakers of America — that the Silver Assassins sought their victims! Singly, in pairs and in numbered groups they died, laying down their lives for their country — while panic spread, and the Spider, alone aware of the terrific catastrophe which impended, fought through black, bodiless shadows to reach and destroy the menace which festered underground! Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.
 
The Spider #14 Death’s Crimson Juggernaut

Hideous maniacal laughter shattered the dark silence of ghostly tenements. Sleepy-eyed men and women, stumbling through the dim halls of the building, found a sight that chilled their souls with terror. On a blank wall, spikes driven through her, hands and feet, blood coursing down her arms and breasts in tiny rivulets, a beautiful young woman was hanging, crucified, dying. Still another victim of the Torture Trust! And while panic spreads, while hundreds die victims of the Killers, the Spider is blinded, his faithful servants imprisoned, his friends dishonored! How can Richard Wentworth, desperate and alone, combat the powerful, well-organized Murder Syndicate whose gun hirelings hunt him down like a vicious mad dog? Another epic exploit of America’s best-loved pulp-fiction character of the 1930s and 1940s: The Spider — Master of Men! As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction: “Meet the Spider” especially for this series of eBooks.

 

The news spread like wild-fire. A man had solved the problem of the ages — he was bringing the dead back to life! Operator 5, ace of the American Secret Service, recognized the grave menace. He realized the danger if the gigantic advances of modern science were employed selfishly by unscrupulous men. And that precisely was the danger facing his native land! The Master of Death, using the promise of life everlasting, was cunningly building an army of fanatic, half-mad followers, men who were burning, pillaging and slaying at the will of the man-monster they worshipped!
 
Jimmy Christopher, clean-cut, square-jawed and clear-eyed, was the star of the most audacious pulp magazines ever conceived — Operator #5. Savage would-be conquerors, creepy cults, weird weather-controllers and famine-creating menaces to our mid-western breadbasket… these were but a few of the fiendish horrors that Jimmy Christopher was forced to confront. Operator #5 returns in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format. As a special Bonus, Will Murray has written an introduction especially for this series of Operator #5 eBooks.

 
Four powerful factions work at cosmic cross purposes in a game of system-wide stakes as Curt Newton and his staunch comrades set out to create a brand new planet to add to the family of the Sun! Captain Future… the Ace of Space! Born and raised on the moon, Curt Newton survived the murder of his scientist parents to become the protector of the galaxy known as Captain Future. With his Futuremen, Grag the giant robot, Otho, the shape-shifting android and Simon Wright, the Living Brain, he patrols the solar system in the fastest space ship ever constructed, the Comet, pursuing human monsters and alien threats to Earth and her neighbor planets.

 

The Scorpion #1 Satan’s Incubator
Wholesale murder-madness gripped an entire city when mothers killed their own children and husbands slew the wives they loved! Only two people knew the dread cause of this charnel-house terror; one was the Scorpion, relentless crime-master who would ride to power on the red crest of the death-mania. The other was the honest little medico of mystery — Dr. Skull!
 
The Scorpion was the pinnacle of weird menace. He appeared once, in a single pulp magazine issue, and never appeared again. The magazine never made to a series, for some reason. It was over-the-top action and audacious horror-thrills.  A classic, the likes of which has never been seen again! One of the rare supernatural series the pulps, The Scorpion returns in this vintage pulp tale, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
 

When you purchase these beautifully reformatted eBooks from RadioArchives.com you receive all three formats in one ZIP file: PDF for PC or Mac computer; Mobi for Kindle and ePub for iPad/IPhone, Android, Sony eReader, and Nook. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your eBook novels to your new device without the need to purchase anything new.
 
Find these legendary Pulp tales and more in Will Murray’s Pulp Classics, now available in the Kindle store and the Barnes and Noble Nook store! The best Pulp eBooks now available for only $2.99 each from Radio Archives!
 
ebook1centoffer-35548791 cent Spider eBook!

 
For a limited time you can now download an exciting original Spider adventure for just one thin penny! Part of the Will Murray Pulp Classics line, The Spider #11, Prince of the Red Looters first saw print in 1934 and features his momentous battle with The Fly and his armies of crazed criminal killers. Their motto? Why “KILL THE SPIDER!” of course.
 
For those who have been unsure about digging into the wonderful world of pulps this is a perfect opportunity to give one of these fantastic yarns a real test run. With a full introduction to the Spider written by famed pulp historian and author Will Murray, The Spider #11 was written by one of pulp’s most respected authors, Norvell W. Page. Writing as Grant Stockbridge, Page’s stories included some of the most bizarre and fun takes on heroes and crime fighting in the history of escapist fiction.
 
Even today Page’s scenarios and his edge-of-the-seat writing style are still thrilling both new and old fans everywhere. For those who have never read one of these rollercoaster adventures, you are in for a thrill. If you already know how much fun a classic pulp is, make sure you download this bargain.
 
All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats for the ultimate in compatibility. When you purchase this eBook from RadioArchives.comyou receive all three formats in one ZIP file. When you upgrade to a new eReader, you can transfer your Spider novels to your new device without the need to purchase anything new. Use the PDF version when reading on your PC or Mac computer. If you have a Kindle, the Mobi version is what you want. If you have an iPad/iPhone, Android, Sony eReader or Nook, then the ePub version is what you want.

 

 

The Knight of Darkness wages battles to the death with two of his greatest superfoes! First, The Shadow becomes “The Devil’s Paymaster” to end the sadistic reign of The Prince of Evil in the violent conclusion of Theodore Tinsley’s most acclaimed storyline. Then, Lamont Cranston must die to crush a superfiend’s evil plots when “The Wasp Returns” in an action-packed thriller by Walter B. Gibson. Foreword by Michael Uslan, executive producer of the Summer Bat-Blockbuster, “The Dark Knight Rises.” This instant collector’s item leads off with one of Graves Gladney’s greatest covers, and also showcases all the original interior illustrations by legendary illustrator Earl Mayan, with historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. BONUS: The Shadow tracks down “The Comic Strip Killer” in a classic adventure from the Golden Age of Radio. Buy it today for $14.95.
 

The Man of Bronze returns in two tales of super-science that inspired classic Superman stories. First, a silvery stratospheric craft showers vapors of death upon a Texas town, while Cosmic Rays alter Long Tom’s mental makeup. Doc and Patricia Savage attempt to thwart the deadly plots of a red-hooded mastermind in “He Could Stop the World,” a pulp classic by Laurence Donovan that inspired an early Superman story by Jerry Siegel. Then, “The Laugh of Death” could change the outcome of World War II, in a Lester Dent thriller that introduced Doc’s new Fortress of Solitude that inspired the Man of Steel’s glacier hideaway. This double-novel collector’s edition leads off with a knockout cover by legendary paperback artist James Bama. and also reprints both classic color pulp covers by Robert G. Harris and Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray. Priced at only $14.95.
 

The Man of Bronze returns in two tales of super-science that inspired classic Superman stories. First, a silvery stratospheric craft showers vapors of death upon a Texas town, while Cosmic Rays alter Long Tom’s mental makeup. Doc and Patricia Savage attempt to thwart the deadly plots of a red-hooded mastermind in “He Could Stop the World,” a pulp classic by Laurence Donovan that inspired an early Superman story by Jerry Siegel. Then, “The Laugh of Death” could change the outcome of World War II, in a Lester Dent thriller that introduced Doc’s new Fortress of Solitude that inspired the Man of Steel’s glacier hideaway. This double-novel collector’s edition features both classic color pulp covers by Robert G. Harris and Emery Clarke, Paul Orban’s classic interior illustrations and historical commentary by Will Murray, writer of ten Doc Savage novels. Priced at only $14.95 
 

One of the top crime-fighters from the golden age of pulp fiction, The Spider returns in two thrill-packed adventures written by Norvell Page under the pseudonym of Grant Stockbridge. First, in “Laboratory Of The Damned” (1936), Poisoned! Struck down by a deadly assault from a mad murderer, the Spider finds his friend Stanley Kirkpatrick, Commissioner of Police, doomed to a stupor of living death. Nor is he the only victim… also stricken with the dread malady is Richard Wentworth’s fiancee, Nita van Sloan! The Spider battles both the Law and the Underworld to survive! Then, in “Hell’s Sales Manager” (1940), The Brand wields a weird new weapon that sucks everything in its path into a vortex of destruction! How can even the Master of Men fight an enemy that seems to simply vanish? While this reign of terror goes unchecked, the Spider finds his every effort hampered by a human bloodhound assigned to track down and eliminate him. These two exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading and feature both of the original full color covers as well as interior illustrations that accompany each story. Available now for $14.95!
 

Altus Press is proud to announce the release of the third volume in its acclaimed Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series, written by Will Murray and Lester Dent, writing as Kenneth Robeson.
 
Set in the Fall of 1936, The Infernal Buddha tells the epic story of Doc Savage’s desperate quest to control the Buddha of Ice, a relic of unknown origin—and what may become the most dangerous object on Earth!
 
When a mummy arrives at Doc Savage’s New York headquarters wearing the clothes of his missing assistant, engineer Renny Renwick, Doc, Monk, and Ham rush to Singapore where they get on the trail of a swashbuckling pirate who calls himself the Scourge of the South China Sea, in whose hands a piece of the infernal Buddha has fallen. The trail leads to Pirate Island, the fate of Renny, and a mysterious box containing a terrible, unstoppable power.
 
But that is only the beginning of the quest into which the Man of Bronze plunges—one that will take him to the upper reaches of the Yellow Sea and a series a wild ocean battles against the vicious factions fighting for control on the infernal Buddha.
 
Before it is all over, every human life on Earth will tremble on the brink of eternity, and Doc Savage will face his greatest test.
 
“This may be my wildest Doc novel to date,” says author Will Murray. “The Infernal Buddha is a fantasy epic full of corsairs, criminals and other culprits. The menace is planetary. The threat, extinction. Doc Savage has a reputation for saving the world. This time he does it on the greatest scale possible. I began this book back in 1992, working from an opening situation Lester Dent started in 1935. Together, we have produced a true Doc Savage epic. And it only took about 75 years….”
 
The Infernal Buddha features a startling cover painted by Joe DeVito, depicting Doc Savage as the Buccaneer of Bronze! This cover was painted from a still taken in 1964 of legendary model Steve Holland, and is a variant pose shot for famed illustrator James Bama’s classic cover to The Man of Bronze. There has never been a Doc cover like it! Buy it today for only $24.95 from Radio Archives.
 
 

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Review of “The Red Terrors” from Doc Savage, Volume 22
By Dr. Art Sippo

 
Mysterious red monsters are boarding ships in the Atlantic Ocean and carrying passengers away with them into the sea. Once submerged, the hapless victims are never seen again. When Doctor Hugo Collendar is taken in this fashion from a ship bound to Cape town, his fate is made known to Doc Savage. The Bronze Man of Mystery along with his aides Monk, Ham and Long Tom.

 
They discover that the kidnappings all occur in the same area of the ocean. They examine the cabin from which Dr. Collander was abducted and discover 3 sets of fingerprints. One of those sets belongs to the famous deep sea diver Harry Day who disappeared at sea several months back when his ship exploded. He was presumed dead along with all of his crew. Now he appeared to be involved in the mysterious disappearances at sea. As Doc and his men dealve deeper into the mystery they are taken captive and dragged into the ocean depths by the Red Terrors.
 
What is the secret of the Red Terrors? Why are they kidnapping people? Where do they take their prisoners underneath the sea? How could Harry Day have survived underwater for all those months?
 
This is another highly imaginative story in the annals of Doc Savage and his crew of trusted companions. There is mystery, intrigue, weird menace, and a secret hidden for ages under the sea. Don’t miss this exciting adventure! Get it and another full length Doc Savage tale today in Doc Savage Volume 22 from Radio Archives for only $12.95!
 

Comments From Our Customers!
 
Richard Stone writes:

I am a lifetime Jolson fan and enthusiast and am thrilled and amazed by what you have just done. It’s not everyday that 36 Jolson shows surface in great sound!
 
Charles Power writes:
Keep at it. I’d love someday to have a complete electronic collection of the Spider.
 
Roger Lorette writes:
The quality of your product is excellent. Keep up the great work!!!
 
Steve Sher writes:
I greatly enjoyed Mutual Radio Theatre. Will there be any additional volumes in the future?

 
David Kunovic writes:
I really love the audio books. I listen more than I read now. Keep them coming. Is there any chance you can get the rights to do The Shadow in audio form ? This would be great. Love the Spider. Hope there are more to come.
 
Fr. Mike Phillips writes:
I grew up in the 40’s & loved the old radio shows. Your selections are the best I have ever seen. This is my first – but not my last – order. Many thanks.
 
Tracy Croffutt writes:
I would do away with my TVs if old radio shows came back on the radio. I’m 77 and listened every night when the programs started. I got my first radio when i was about 6. Loved every program. 
 

James Felder writes:
I’m so happy you’ve been doing the Spider ebook reprints. There were, I assume, unlicensed e-editions on Amazon in the past. I bought all of them (about 11) because I love the Spider. Yours are much better. I’m enjoying Operator #5 a lot too – surprised by the high quality of the writing in it.
 
Carolyn Andersen writes:
I thoroughly enjoy all 3 volumes of The Railroad Hour. As far as I am concerned they are magnificent! (And, goodness knows, they are ever so much better than what comes out today.)
 
William Blome writes:
Thanks. I am looking forward to adding this collection to my hundred or so Jolson 78’s, LPs, 45s, cassette tapes, and CDs. No 8-tracks. I’m not that crazy about him. Thanks for trusting me, although I suppose you know that anyone who likes Jolson is by definition an honest, superior, and all-around terrific person.

 

If you’d like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to Service@RadioArchives.com. We’d love to hear from you!

 
The products you’ve read about in this newsletter are just a small fraction of what you’ll find waiting for you at RadioArchives.com. Whether it’s the sparkling audio fidelity of our classic radio collections, the excitement of our new line of audiobooks, or the timeless novels of the pulp heroes, you’ll find hundreds of intriguing items atRadioArchives.com.
 
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, or if this newsletter has been sent to you in error, please reply to this e-mail with the subject line UNSUBSCRIBE and your name will immediately be removed from our mailing list.
 

REVIEW: The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy

The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy
By Jody Duncan Jesser and Janine Pourroy
304 pages, Abrams, $40

There is so much visually wonderful about Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of Batman films that this book seemed an obvious event. An oversized hardcover, it has amazing production values with gorgeous photography on heavy paper, cleanly designed (thank you, Chip Kidd), and overall appealing. Clearly, the authors had access to everyone from Nolan on down and they spoke freely about the challenges of conceiving themes to marketing the films.

And yet, everything feels like we’ve just touched the surface and each chapter –Screenplay, Production Design, Cast, Costumes & Makeup, The Shoot,  Special Effects & Stunts, Editing, Music & Sound, Visual Effects, and Marketing – all leave you wondering about what else happened. For example, during the Shoot, one chapter per film, you never get a feel for how Nolan directs his cast, or how he adjusts to the needs of each actor. How did Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhaal differ in their interpretation of Rachel Dawes. We’re left wondering why the comic book antecedents for most of the characters are referenced but not Henri Ducard nor are we told about the various reveals through the films (such as Ducard really being Ra’s al Ghul, echoed in the third film by Miranda Tate being revealed as Talia). Michael Caine writes an introduction that extols Nolan’s virtues as a director, but after that, we’re still left wondering what those are.

This reads about two steps above the usual press materials sent out when films open, the canned features sent to media outlets hungry for content. The writing is clear and facile, but a little too fawning in spots and far from critical about things that worked and didn’t work.

Perhaps the most glaring omission is a real in-depth look at the wildly successful viral marketing. This section needed more content, more images of the viral marketing at work, and more examples of the Internet phenomena, especially for The Dark Knight, which raised the bar for films.

You get some great shots of how the costumes, sets, and vehicles were built and see some of the shooting challenges that were presented over the last decade. It certainly works as a primer to Nolan’s take on the caped crusader and his world, but you don’t necessarily get into the filmmaker’s head, especially why he felt he was done after three. Nor does he comment how his successful reinterpretation of the hero led to supervising next summer’s Man of Steel. The contributions from screenwriters David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan are acknowledged but hearing more from them would have certainly helped us better understand how the films evolved, especially the themes for the final film in the wake of Heath Ledger’s death. Nolan writes in his foreword, “I never thought we’d do a third – are there any great second sequels?” Well, there’s The Last Crusade for starters, but Batman has endured monthly for seventy-five years so the answer is yes.

The book is a fine read but given the size and weight of the tome, one would have hoped for depth in the written content. It leaves you want much, much more and at this price, readers deserve all that and more.

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